｜ I. The Founding and Mission of the National Human Rights Commission The founding of the National Human Rights Commission started with a suggestion from human rights scholar Huang Mou in 1997. In 1999, Taiwan Association for Human Rights President Huang Wen-hsiung rallied 22 civic organizations to form the Coalition for the Promotion of a National Human Rights Commission, initiating a lobbying movement. The development of this movement was closely linked to domestic and international situations in Taiwan. This included the wave of street protests Taiwan saw in the 80s, which prompted the lifting of the martial law in 1987 and the subsequent political domino effect: the constitutional reforms launched in 1990, the first full National Assembly re-election on December 19, 1992, and the first direct presidential election on March 23, 1996, as well as other steps in Taiwan’s democratization process. At the same time, the UN’s attention to the international trend of basic human rights protection also contributed towards the establishment and operation of a national human rights institution. In particular, the UN passed the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions, or the Paris Principles, in 1993, which encouraged, advocated, and assisted countries to establish national human rights institutions. In the ensuing years, 54 countries quickly established na- December 10, 2020: Human rights scholar Huang Mou attends the human rights exhibition held by the National Human Rights Commission for International Human Rights Day. Courtesy of: National Human Rights Commission, Taiwan 144 Chapter 5 ｜ Continual Improvement: Keeping Up with International Trends Lee Teng-hui established a Human Rights Protection Committee under the Control Yuan before the March 2000 presidential election. President Chen Shui-bian Vowed to Build a Human Rights State Huang Wen-hsiung was the president of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights. Photographer: Huang Chien-hsien tional human rights institutions. Taiwanese human rights scholars and human rights groups noticed this international trend and soon reached a consensus in 1999 to form the Coalition for the Promotion of a National Human Rights Commission. Mr. Huang Wen-hsiung believed that, in the decades since the ROC government lost the right to represent China and broke away from the international humans right system, such system developed considerably in terms of norms and mechanisms, and gradually penetrated the legislation, constitutional interpretations, and human rights practices of many countries. Huang Wen-hsiung said: “At the same time, international human rights movements blossomed across civil societies at global, regional, and national levels in a way that neither international organizations nor individual government could ignore. Taiwan could not stay aloof from such developments.” Due to the high level of public support, President The year 2000 saw Taiwan’s first peaceful transition of power between political parties and the DPP took power for the first time. Huang Wen-hsiung submitted a memorandum to the newly elected Chen Shui-bian. President Chen Shui-bian incorporated specific recommendations from the memorandum into his inauguration speech on May 20, vowing to establish a human rights state and promising to promote “the establishment of an independent national human rights commission” and “ratification of international human rights covenants”. In October 2000, the civil version of the Draft for the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission came out. The Office of the President subsequently established a human rights advisory group, which was tasked with the creation of the National Human Rights Commission and the execution of the ratification of the two covenants. The two covenants were codified based on the spirit and foundations of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including, correspondingly, freedom and social rights of the human rights system into the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. They are abbreviated as the “ICCPR” and “ICESCR”, respectively. In 1967, the year after the two covenants were passed at the United Nations, Liu Kai, the ambassador 145